Can we Kill the Resume? Please… (notes)

• Is the resume an effective device for hiring or not?
○ There’s a huge gap between the job posting and the resume
○ There’s so many unfilled jobs and so many candidates
○ Do they meet the basic qualifications ? A good way to decipher that
§ Using the resume as a filtering mechanism
§ As a way to lead into more information with the applicant
§ Not used as the sole way to hire someone
○ Depends on the job you are hiring for – if leadership, and referred, then that carries more information
○ If hiring for an entry level, can get more people in the pool to be able to better assess
○ Linked In is a resume as well
• Many different resume formats, you might be out of luck if you picked the wrong one
○ People might miss something if its formatted differently and might miss out on a job opportunity b/c of this
○ It should be able to characterize you , what exactly are you bringing to the table ? Being an achiever, and just a doer
○ Act as a tool to personify yourself, how to add value to the organization
○ Story of a girl who submitted a resume to AirBnb – an article about this
§ The resume was so awesome, that it got noticed by the CEO
§ Gave really awesome data on her resume
• Do resumes matter that much anymore when things are done through word of mouth these days?
○ Because you know someone/respect someone and they forwarded you someone’s resume
○ But who does that leave out, eliminate?
• Linked In gives recommendations, some people get great ones
○ Helps you also explore your networks
• Making the resume tailored to each job
• Is the cover letter still alive?
○ Smaller organizations do care, on the larger scale they don’t care
○ The volume changes once you get into a bigger company
○ 30-45 seconds to do a quick scan, but if looking at 400 resumes in a day
○ What pops out?
§ Type of languages for engineers
§ Schools and location
§ Key words depending on the job
§ If I see that key word, then pull it out and do a deeper dive
• Fresh grads should have an objective, and a Summary for those people with experience
• Quantifiable pieces are good
• Wisdom from Recruiters:
○ If its not visible in your resume for a specific job , if you’re going to take it seriously, show why this is the job for you in the cover letter, and call out something beyond what you are highlighting in the resume to give you that edge, what makes you unique?
• Resume Length Holiday discussions
○ As you grow older, its ok to do 2-3 pages
○ Some people say no one wants to see more than 1 page
○ Don’t go back to high school, the past 10 years are sufficient
○ For some of senior leaders, would need 2 pages
○ 4-5 pages gets a bit ridiculous
○ Early career – keep it to 1 page
○ 1 page per decade of experience
○ 2 pages is the magic number, after that don’t want to scroll down as a recruiter
○ Someone has seen 8 pages on a resume- never spoke to the person, didn’t want to know any more
• How can the traditional resume fail us?
○ After the interview, its your skill set that matters
○ If you don’t know how to write your resume well, getting your foot in the door can be tough
○ Its about selling yourself, self-confidence
§ If you’re not able to put it into words, becomes a technical garble
§ Have to have the communication skills, collaboration is important
§ 90% of the population are not very good at writing
□ Particularly at writing our own resumes , struggling with your own ego and confidence
□ Can hire it out and it will be awesome, worth the money
□ Gary Kanter – career management Inc. (in Bellevue)
§ Professional Interviewing Class helped
§ Building the mystery around so that you can elaborate during an interview, don’t put everything on the resume
§ If there are gaps in the resume, recruiters are suspicious of that
○ Keywords/gaming?
• Industry changes
○ Tech appreciates people of varied backgrounds – bringing a unique perspective
○ Database development and painting for instance
○ Nowadays there are a lot of layoffs happening, as long as you have a story
○ Having continuity helps , bringing diversity into the thought process
○ Showing that you can learn
○ A need for more hybrid roles – individuals stepping out of their careers to do something different (for instance nurses getting CS degrees)
○ Are transitions more likely in early career vs. later career?
○ Gap in work
○ Don’t try to hide things by removing dates , be genuine
○ Age-ism and gender – some companies take off the name and address off before distributing the resume
§ Do dates lead to age biases
§ Don’t need a date for the degree
§ Address may not be relevant for relocation costs or flying out for interviews
• Some new paradigms coming out other than resumes, not really mass market yet
○ For instance, looking at social media behavior as a predictor of X,Y, Z
○ Training to hire program
○ Concept of a testing battery – personality testing
○ If you worked on a project and even if it didn’t launch, it did help to still put it on your resume
• Doing a matching service, preferences as a job seeker
○ Once someone enters, what are they actually going to be doing
○ Gestalt evaluation
○ Data analytics and science
○ Sometimes job descriptions don’t accurately reflect the job
○ Like a A day in the life of the job
○ People don’t like if things don’t work out